Andrew M Brown is the Telegraph's obituaries editor.

Robin Whitehead's death and the appeal of the demi-monde

Last year Robin Whitehead made a documentary about Pete Doherty's band The Libertines (Photo: PA)

Teddy Goldsmith's grand-daughter Robin Whitehead drank nothing stronger than Twinings teas before she died, according to Peter Wolfe, a close friend of Pete Doherty. Other factors, however, point to a drug overdose as a likely cause of death. Drug paraphernalia were found at the scene, and 27-year-olds don't usually die suddenly unless it's from a road traffic accident.

This sad story is made even sadder by Miss Whitehead's air of vulnerability, youth and beauty. She had been making a film about Pete Doherty, apparently called The Right to Romance, and had taken Peter Wolfe to her home in Gloucestershire.

There is a certain kind of young, attractive woman from a prosperous background who seeks the company of edgy people who inhabit a twilight world – people who don't seem immediately appealing. Sometimes drugs are the unspoken link. Typically you find might a young, beautiful girl hanging around with an unattractive, even slightly seedy man – someone she wouldn't normally be seen dead with – and they might be taking drugs together.

Possibly the riskiness is part of the appeal. But it is the sort of relationship that gives mothers nightmares. In any case, whatever the particular circumstances of Miss Whitehead's death, they should not obscure what her friends say about her, that she was a kind person and, as her cousin Zac Goldsmith said, a "human gem".